Rowing benefits, for the individual and the gym owner alike

Like most pieces of cardiovascular equipment rowers have been around for a long time, but in the last few years the popularity of rowers has increased significantly. Especially when CrossFit implemented the rower in their workouts and moreover the broadcasting of the well-known CrossFit games. Rowing is hot! The latest Heat Series Rowers offer innovative features that blend in with many different fitness environments, which appeal to both the individual and gym owner.

Rowing is a great workout; its low impact for our joints but has a high caloric expenditure. You’re using a lot of muscle groups to work through each stroke, in fact around 85% of the muscles in the body. Therefore, it’s a great piece for those avoiding impact or wanting to use it for mobility and rehabilitation, or for the active ageing population who are looking for exercise that will be kind to their joints and aid in strengthening their muscles. Because it’s a versatile machine, it has a lot of benefits for the gym owner too. Rowing could for instance be part of the (small) group training or sit on the gym floor with the rest of your cardio equipment as a stand-alone piece. The transport handle on the Heat Rowers makes it easy for you to place the rowing machine anywhere at any time.

Currently rowers are being used in all sorts of settings; they appear on the CrossFit arena floor, could be part of a HIIT class, steady-state aerobic endurance training or even interval training, and the Heat Series Rowers are no exception. Both rowers offer 100 levels of resistance and the static air and magnetic resistance dial lets you fine tune it to an intensity level that perfectly suits the nature of exercise you’re looking for. Pairing this feature with the intuitive LCD console and programmes available with clearly displayed metrics, allow instructors to optimise a small group training class, as well as individual exercisers to easily train on their own with simple programs including target workouts, distance, time, calories, and intervals. The Heat Performance Rower takes this one step further with the TFT 2.0 console including the Race a Distance or Race a Friend programmes and through innovative Coach by Color® technology, informing exercisers of their output during workouts in a fun and engaging way, individuals can get competitive or a small group training class could use this feature to battle it out in an intense performance based session. The click-release ratcheting foot straps are of great value for group classes and small group training, as they shorten the change-over time between exercisers.

It’s well known there are many physical benefits to rowing, whilst the main one will always be the improvement in aerobic fitness, users also see improvement in strength and endurance in the lower body. It can be easily overlooked, but the legs are the main driving force of the rowing stroke. With rowing exercisers use about 60% lower body, 30% core, and 10% upper body, so whether you are a gym instructor considering the rower’s place in a fitness programme, or an individual looking for an excellent all round workout, it places high on the list of machines to consider. We mustn’t forget that posture and form are essential on a rower; the better your rowing mechanics (the way you move your body through the stroke), the better your efficiency will be. You don’t want to waste energy on inefficient movement, our recent blog touched on technique, so if you haven’t already read that, take a look here for the entire blog. With proper form, rowing helps strengthen the core and posterior chain and improves posture, and in a day and age where it’s estimated we spend up to 9.5 hours of our day sitting this is an excellent reason to include it in any training plan.

To sum up, reasons why you should add the rower to your training schedule or gym equipment:

• The Perfect Combination: Low Impact with High Caloric Expenditure
• Extreme Versatility
• Total-Body Workout
• Improves Posture

Do you want to learn which rower fits you best? Take a look here